Extended Family® is a 501(c)(3) charity designed to assist single parents and their children.

If you are a parent, we don't have to tell you how difficult it can be to raise children. We no longer live in a world where one parent works while the other parent is able to devote themselves full time to raising their children. No, those days are long gone. In most two parent households today both parents are required to work in order to earn enough money to support the family. It can be tough on the parents and the kids.

Now, if you live in a two parent household, imagine doing this alone.... working one, two, sometimes three jobs to support your children only to realize all of this work means you can't spend enough time to "raise" the loved ones you are working so hard for... your children.

Parenting is tough… single parenting is relentless. It’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You can’t take a day off if you’re sick because you still need to cook, clean, get the kids ready for school, help the kids with their homework and so on. If one of your children is sick, you often need to take time off of work to care for them. If you want some “me” time you’d better be prepared to wait.

Many single parents make these sacrifices and more for their children and it's still not enough. Extended Family® is here to lend a helping hand and let those families know they're not alone.

On A Personal Note:

I am often asked how I was inspired to start Extended Family®, so here it is... I am one of six children and my parents were married until my father's death in 1993. I have been married since 1996 and my wife and I are the parents of two wonderful children. So, I do not have first hand experience as a single parent or being a child of a single parent. We had some financial struggles growing up, but nothing really significant and I fortunately do not have any financial issues now.

With that being said, when I was younger we always had friends of mine, or one of my brothers or sisters, who would stay at our home until late at night and sometimes sleep over for a day or two or even weeks. This was often on school nights, which meant getting homework done, getting to sleep on time and getting to school on time... among other things. When the parents would pick their kids up (or my parents would drop them off) many of them would thank my mom and dad and tell them that they didn't know how they would do it without them. They had no one to watch their children and they needed to work. My parents became the "extended family" for many of our friends.

When I became a parent of my own I quickly realized first hand how difficult it was to manage everything... even when there were two parents and money wasn't an issue! Extended Family® was born... and it's such a wonderful feeling to reward so many deserving families.

There are a tremendous number of wonderful non profit organizations out there, but unfortunately there are also many charities that seem to operate more like a for profit business. That is why it was important for me to ensure that 100% of all donations go directly towards single parent families and children. In order to make this happen Extended Family® is a 100% volunteer organization (nobody gets paid). In addition to being a large donor, all expenses (office rent, supplies, phones, marketing, etc.) are paid by me directly. This makes Extended Family® different from most (if not all) because truly 100% of all our supporters donations go where it is intended to go... to the families in need!